As the title character in the musical “Mrs. Doubtfire,” the superlative performer Rob McClure tears around the stage like a human tornado. In the role made famous by the inimitable Robin Williams, McClure manages to evoke that actor’s comic genius while forging his own dizzying path into the role. Yes, his voice box is a veritable Spotify of mimicry — playlist including a creditable Donald Trump — as was Williams’s. But McClure is also a fine singer, a nimble dancer (even in the Doubtfire getup) and an actor who captures the character’s antic humor as well as his yearning paternal warmth.
But his herculean efforts to lift the show into the musical theater heavens, while always fun to watch, are ultimately unavailing. “Mrs. Doubtfire,” like virtually all stage adaptations of popular movies, still feels like an unnecessary and at times laboriously strained transcription of the original film.
